Heavy duty armored vehicles, used for example, by the military, must be built to withstand forces far greater than encountered by conventional consumer cars and industrial trucks. The utilization of increasingly powerful explosive devices such as IED's, RPG's, and EFP's by hostile insurgent forces has compelled the defense industry to respond by deploying heavier armor on their tactical armored vehicles. While necessary to protect military personnel, heavier armor creates unique problems. The weight of heavily armored vehicle doors and ramps often exceeds 200 lbs., and in some instances, may exceed 1,000 lbs. To open and close such doors or ramps requires assistance from electric, pneumatic, or hydraulic powered units. Such power assisted doors and ramps are known in the industry. Prior art powered doors require separate mechanical and electrical systems, with separate control handles and/or switches for the door and locks, which result in non-integrated and complicated door functions. These complications unnecessarily lead to increased difficulties and time in opening and closing the heavy doors of these armored vehicles, particularly in emergency situations.
Most often a rotating lever-type handle is used in these applications to mechanically unlatch a rotary cam latch, bolt-action latch and/or rotor and catch spring return latches in a rotational motion about a horizontal axis.
The power assist function is initialized when the all-mechanical latches in the system are mechanically unlatched. This is accomplished in one of two ways:                1) The same lever that mechanically unlatches the system hits an electrical switch at the end of its rotational travel in the same axis of motion and requires the operator to hold the lever handle at this position to keep the power assistance device engaged, or        2) A separate spring loaded, normally open, electrical switch is manually triggered by the operator to engage the power assistance device and switch must remain triggered to keep the power assistance device engaged.        
Neither of these methods mimics an intuitive control motion to power the door or ramp open and closed in the direction of the open and closing motion.
An external mechanical override is often included in a powered door system to allow the door to be opened from the outside and free the occupants in case of emergency. The override can be operated with the internal door handle that has been removed from another vehicle, or another tool can be used to operate the override. The handle is inserted onto the override shaft and rotated to open the door. This feature requires an additional protruding shaft to the exterior of the vehicle and in the case of armored vehicles, it requires an additional hole to be made through the armor, apart from the hole for the handle assembly.
Accordingly, a primary objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved intuitive motion control system for heavy, power assisted, vehicle doors, ramps, and hatches.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a mechatronic assembly which simplifies opening and closing of doors from the exterior on heavily armored vehicles.
A further objective is the provision of an exterior door handle having a built-in mechanical override feature.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of an armored vehicle door having an intuitive exterior door control system for locking, unlocking, latching, unlatching, opening and closing the door, ramp or hatch.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved method of operating a heavy duty vehicle door, ramp or hatch.
Still another objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved power assisted door with a safe and durable handle assembly for opening and closing the door from outside the vehicle.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved exterior control system for operating an armored vehicle door or ramp in a minimal amount of time.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved power assist door handle assembly which only requires a single mounting hole through the door for both the handle assembly and override mechanism.
These and other objectives will become apparent from the following description of the invention.